{"id":630654,"date":"2026-03-04T03:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/630654\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T03:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T03:15:16","slug":"early-results-show-chapa-davis-leading-in-democrats-da-primary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/630654\/","title":{"rendered":"Early results show Chapa, Davis leading in Democrats\u2019 DA primary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After early results were released Tuesday night, <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.us5.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=3845baa9e7672a9eb5e9569d4&amp;id=ba8d4f45fe&amp;e=0e4ffa370a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luz Elena Chapa<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/profile\/jane-davis-2026-candidate-for-bexar-county-district-attorney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jane Davis<\/a> appeared to be leading Democrats\u2019 eight-way Bexar County district attorney primary.<\/p>\n<p>Many votes still need to be counted, so the results could shift throughout the night.<\/p>\n<p>If no candidate takes at least 50% of the vote in the first round, the top two vote-takers will advance to a <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/how-does-the-primary-election-work-in-texas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 26 primary runoff<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Former Fourth Court of Appeals Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.us5.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=3845baa9e7672a9eb5e9569d4&amp;id=ba8d4f45fe&amp;e=0e4ffa370a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Luz Elena Chapa<\/a> was taking 23.89%<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/profile\/jane-davis-2026-candidate-for-bexar-county-district-attorney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jane Davis<\/a>, chief of the Juvenile Section of the Bexar County District Attorney\u2019s Office was taking 18.97%<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/social-media-personality-shannon-locke-bexar-county-district-attorney-da-race\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shannon Locke<\/a>, a defense attorney and <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/social-media-personality-shannon-locke-bexar-county-district-attorney-da-race\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">social media personality<\/a>, was taking 13.65%<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/profile\/veronica-legarreta-2026-candidate-for-bexar-county-district-attorney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Veronica Legarreta<\/a>, a defense attorney, was taking 11.41%<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/profile\/oscar-salinas-2026-candidate-for-bexar-county-district-attorney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oscar Salinas<\/a>, a prosecutor in the DA\u2019s office, was taking 11.18%<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/profile\/meredith-chacon-2026-candidate-for-bexar-county-district-attorney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Meredith Chacon<\/a>, a defense attorney and former prosecutor who ran for the position as a Republican in 2022, was taking 8.74%<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/profile\/angelica-meli-carrion-powers-2026-candidate-for-bexar-county-district-attorney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Angelica \u201cMeli\u201d Carri\u00f3n Powers<\/a>, who oversees the Family Violence Division at the District Attorney\u2019s Office, was taking 6.55%<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/profile\/james-bethke-2026-candidate-for-bexar-county-district-attorney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Bethke<\/a>, executive director of Bexar County\u2019s Managed Assigned Counsel Office, was taking 5.61%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Retiring <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/bexar-county-district-attorney-joe-gonzales-wont-seek-reelection\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">District Attorney Joe Gonzales<\/a> was <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/district-attorney-bexar-county-primary-election-results-2018\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">elected with a wave of progressive DAs in 2018<\/a>, running on <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/bexar-county-2018-midterm-election-results\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a platform of restorative justice<\/a> and benefitting from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressnews.com\/news\/local\/politics\/article\/Inside-the-ground-game-and-Soros-effect-that-took-12770212.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">roughly $1 million<\/a> from liberal billionaire George Soros\u2019 Texas Justice and Public Safety political action committee.<\/p>\n<p>When Gonzales announced that he planned to retire at the end of his term, several <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.us5.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=3845baa9e7672a9eb5e9569d4&amp;id=277c4d73ba&amp;e=0e4ffa370a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bigger-name candidates looked<\/a> at the race, but ultimately passed on a position that\u2019s been under increasing scrutiny from both the left and right in years.<\/p>\n<p>National progressive groups have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.expressnews.com\/news\/local\/politics\/article\/Inside-the-ground-game-and-Soros-effect-that-took-12770212.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spent big money<\/a> turning Texas\u2019 large counties into laboratories for justice reform, while the state\u2019s Republican leaders have made it easier to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2024\/04\/20\/texas-rogue-prosecutors-law-jose-garza-removal-attempt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">remove DAs they feel aren\u2019t<\/a> being tough enough on crime.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, the race came down to a crowded field of candidates who\u2019ve scrambled to stand out from the crowd. No candidate raised much money for the race, but Chapa and Davis put <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/bexar-county-district-attorney-race-fundraising-2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">significant personal resources<\/a> into their campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Chapa got help from a PAC aligned with the San Antonio Police Officers\u2019 Association, while Bethke benefitted from advertising and door-knocking from the progressive bail reform group <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/texas-organizing-project-wades-into-bexar-district-attorney-race\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Organizing Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The winner of an eight-way Democratic primary will be the odds-on favorite to carry the blue county in November. They\u2019ll be up against <a href=\"https:\/\/sanantonioreport.org\/profile\/ashley-foster-2026-candidate-for-bexar-county-district-attorney\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ashley Foster<\/a>, the lone Republican running, plus a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacurrent.com\/news\/san-antonio-news\/wolff-da\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">potential independent candidate<\/a>, who must collect signatures to qualify for the general election ballot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After early results were released Tuesday night, Luz Elena Chapa and Jane Davis appeared to be leading Democrats\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":630655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[178235,17032,5229,210006,178236,116850,250647,234661,190905,250648,246392,191751,7202,7203,178414,358,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,246393,11887],"class_list":["post-630654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-2026-bexar-county-district-attorney-race","tag-2026-election","tag-america","tag-bexar-county-da","tag-bexar-county-district-attorney","tag-bexar-county-elections","tag-james-jim-bethke","tag-jane-davis","tag-luz-elena-chapa","tag-meli-carrion-powers","tag-meredith-chacon","tag-oscar-salinas","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-shannon-locke","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-typedaily","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-veronica-legarreta","tag-wc-less-than-500"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116168735061379769","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}